Tamil Nadu - Salem   

Approved, but no infrastructure

R. Ilangovan

Students exposed to danger, many of them are Dalits

SALEM: It is not a school that functions in a remote tribal village. It is neither a private school that has been asked to seek clearance and safety certificates from various Government departments to renew its approval.

When the district administration, particularly the Education Department is tightening its grips on unapproved private schools, especially after the Kumbakonam tragedy, here is an institution, a Government High School, that functions right in the heart of the city, at Azagapuram, without any basic infrastructure exposing the children to dangers.

This neglected school, upgraded from the middle level recently, now has a strength of 1,000 students, both boys and girls, studying from Class I to Class X and hailing from a neighbourhood that overwhelmingly having lower and middle- income groups. And many of them are Dalit children from the Azagapuram colony.

The primary section from Class I to Class V, functions in a small building right across the road. The high school, from Class VI to Class X, functions on the other side of it in a single building with a narrow staircase that forces the teaching faculty to fervently pray that nothing bad should happen.

Close monitoring

The teachers have to monitoring the narrow staircase every day till the last child leaves safely.

Each class in the high school has three sections having a minimum of 65 students. There is no space even for breathing leave alone for further development. The residents claim that they have approached the district administration umpteen times for the school infrastructure development. But sadly it is yet to respond.

The area also houses a few VIPs. One among them is the Salem MP, K. V. Thankgabalu. The residents, however, accept that the MP has in fact made a genuine attempt to develop the school infrastructure. He even inspected a piece of land of a near-by milk society, which remains unused for long. But for unknown reasons, the MP has withdrawn from the exercise, says a woman. Another VIP who resides in the locality is the Mayor, R. Sureshkumar. His house is a stone's throw from the school.

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Approved, but no infrastructure

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